obama is not more decisive is that the public has. ti appetite for some broader help jury. he has resisted for that reason. and i think as you say, that the problem is that we overreabouted in afghanistan. we overreacted in iraq. and that has led to a paralysis in the case of syria. but at the end of the day, our approach in syria, simply, has not worked. the things we tried to prevent like the spread of the war to surrounding countries, like the growing civilian slaughter, the steady escalation of the conflicts and the radicalization of the rebels, they have happened anyway. >> fran, let's talk about president assad for a moment. everyone has been talking very loudly about the need for him to go for well over a year now. now we're at the critical point of military action and that rhetoric has been reigned back. now not a regime change it's a retaliatory strike perhaps, concentrated on the chem weapons' aspect of what he's done. this can is all the a bit of a mess in terms of how you settle this to an already-skeptical public. is he b